Document of the tragic beginnings of AIDS from when it was considered "gay cancer" and started to spread throughout the gay community (it was reputed to be especially set off in bathhouses where sexual transmission between numerous partners was the norm) killing at an alarming rate but not recognized by our government or provided proper funding for scientific research, even though it was clearly an epidemic deserving of attention. There's an emphasis on the frustrations of those working at the CDC in Atlanta (Matthew Modine, Saul Rubinek, Glenn Headly) and how a French lab is at odds with a renowned scientist's (Alan Alda; this actor is always good at playing snobbish, condescending assholes with a superiority complex) over who can "name" the AIDS virus as their own discovery (although you wouldn't think they were rivals if Alda's Dr. Gallo's "we are all getting along swell" behavior in front of the media was any indication). The film traces the virus to a flight steward with over 70 + lovers all over the world. He's interviewed by Richard Masur (part of the CDC team trying to uncover the meaning behind the virus and its origins), who successfully builds a history of where the virus starts and how it spread from the main person. …And the Band Played On is a real behind-the-curtain look at those affected by AIDS and the scientists/community so desperately wanting to understand it so its damage (or at least a method to halt its quick effects from killing those with it so soon) can be deterred. Ronald Reagan spent a considerable amount of time, when President of the United States, not even mentioning it or recognizing AIDS in the media. That frustration in Modine just to get funding so he and his team could understand the damned virus is palpable enough, but to see Alda's ego getting involved and increasing the difficulty further must enrage those who lost friends and family to AIDS. And the absence of even an electron microscope and proper lab facilities for the Atlanta CDC team shows the extreme lack of initiative by the government to study and deter AIDS establishes that so much time, important and valuable, lost in the combat against this virus is illustrated really well. A tremendous cast with the likes of Donal Logue, Richard Gere, Bud Cort, Swoosie Kurtz, and Ian McKellen as victims of the AIDS (each contributing to the fight and research against it, or abused by it), as well as, Angelica Huston, Richard Jenkins, and Steve Martin in parts revolving around the epidemic. The sheer magnitude of the ravages of AIDS is shown in "updates" as, on occasion, the director provides us with the numbers of cases reported and the victims of it. Important film that says that human beings, regardless of sexual orientation, age, or color, fell (or fall) prey to AIDS for a number of reasons, not just homosexual sex. Modine, a fine actor, excels in the lead. There's an epic scope to the film as it covers a lot of ground. The politics involved get major focus; not to mention, blood distribution led to transfusion patients getting AIDS, but the enforcement of regulatory checking of the blood for the virus needed to be addressed. This is an impassioned outcry for those undermined by the virus, and the precious lives lost because of it.

HBO has this tendency to come up with occasional features that are intelligent, challenging, entertaining, and compelling, and this is one of them. They don't cost much money. I don't understand why Hollywood insists on grinding out senseless and unimaginative remakes of "The Karate Kid." Mathew Modine is a doctor at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta who undertakes the study of an outbreak of a new disease, ultimately called AIDS. He and his team run into all sorts of problems in their pursuit of the lethal virus. And there are a host of other recognizable faces in the cast, some of them, like Steve Martin and Richard Gere, amounting to not much more than featured bits. That they would volunteer for a project like this is surprise enough.Modine's team consists of about half a dozen investigators hampered by underfunding but still resolute. The investigation is blocked or derailed by a number of individuals and social forces. I'm listing them in no particular order.The gay communities themselves are at first uncooperative. A suggestion by Modine and the San Francisco Board of Health that the bath houses that serve as gathering places for strangers is loudly protested (and defeated) by defiant gays who are described as "a vocal minority." They know there is a contagious and destructive disease about but they refuse to give up the bath houses that help spread it.AIDS turns out to be transmitted through blood transfusions but the corporate blood banks and the Red Cross refuse to use a test on their available supply because it is only 80% effective in detecting contamination and it would cost a great deal of money.The evangelicals, like Pat Robertson, are seen in video clips, claiming that AIDS is a scourge sent by God to cure the world of homosexuals. He wasn't alone in his sentiments. A candidate for mayor of Dallas at the time suggested that the best cure for AIDS was to take out all the homosexuals and shoot them.Ronald Reagan's administration cuts the budget for every social program, including the CDC, except for the Department of Defense, whose budget is increased beyond that requested by congress. Years pass before he mentions the epidemic publicly. The film doesn't show it, but Reagan's wife, Nancy, was more responsive and closer to the problem because one of her close friends, her hair dresser, died of AIDS.The media mostly fail to publicize the issue, even after it becomes clear hat it is a danger not just to gay men, but to women, hemophiliacs, new borns, Haitians, and anyone receiving a transfusion for any reason.Most interesting to me, as a scientist of sorts, was Robert Gallo, an ambitious virologist at the National Institutes for Health, who was a renowned scientist and whose organization had far more resources at its disposal than the CDC. The virus itself is discovered by the Pasteur Institute in Paris. And Gallo steals their samples and claims them as his own, so he gets to share the credit with those who actually discovered the virus and he wins all sorts of prizes and keeps his job. A professional committee is formed to investigate Gallo's shenanigans but is dissolved once the furor in the scientific community has faded enough. (The public was largely indifferent.) I'd have fired the SOB on the spot. In science, you don't ignore categorical imperatives in favor of hypothetical imperatives.I admired the film for its concentration on the investigation itself, without dwelling overmuch on the misery it caused. We can take it for granted, as adults, that death from AIDS is tragic in itself and rather more than that for the victims and those who love them. We see some of it, as we should, but not enough to obscure the main narrative. The sentimental element is handled with far better taste than it is in more expensive productions like "Philadelphia" or the documentary, "The Life And Times of Harvey Milk." Carter Burwell's fine score is subdued and apt.The performances are as professional as we might expect from such a cast. As far as that goes, it may be Richard Gere's most accomplished performance as the director and choreographer who "gets it" and is both depressed and scared stiff. How often do we see Richard Gere act genuinely frightened? Ian McKellan as an activist and Alan Alda as a spiteful egotist are outstanding.A couple of personal observations. I lived in San Francisco in the early 1980s when AIDS was still mostly a mystery. I visited the bath houses as well (with my wife) and found them anything but the kinds of places that resemble an Egyptian whorehouse in 1910. Each rented room is full of plumbing, cement, and steam. No beaded curtains or incense.It was also interesting, and I'm thinking like a behavioral scientist, to witness the reaction of the gay community. No doubt opinions were diverse, but the visible graffiti of the time prominently proclaimed that "AIDS is not a gay disease!" An important process in defining yourself as a victim is to also define the perpetrator. In claiming that AIDS was not a gay disease (which, in strict reality, it was not), the victims in the gay community could aim the rage caused by their fear at an ignorant public. It was only later, when it became clear that unsafe sex was a major means of transmission, that politicians and the Reagan administration could be blamed for ignoring the epidemic and contributing to the number of deaths. That's as it should be. The turning point seems to have been the demise of several celebrities, gay and straight, including Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Arthur Ashe, and Rudolf Nureyev.A fascinating and tragic tale, not yet finished.

I read this book in high school in the late 80's just as it was released. The book was excellent and gave a great educational lesson on HIV and AIDS. The movie was just as good. I was really touched at the end when "The last song" by Elton John was playing. The movie gave a great time-line of the virus.It is so terrifying to think AIDS has actually been around since probably 1959 when a blood sample from a man from the Congo had died of a mysterious illness, and tests run on the blood sample today showed he did indeed have AIDS. The movie was very touching, this whole topic leaves a lump in my throat. I was 13 when AIDS had started making the news and in 1985 or 1986 my dad had a blood transfusion. We spend months worrying if he had contracted HIV. Thank god he got clean blood and he dodged a bullet, unlike the 25,000 people in the 70 and 80's who received tainted blood.I got teary eyed when an HIV+ guy in the movie says "This is not a political issue. This is a health issue. This is not a gay issue. This is a human issue. And I do not intend to be defeated by it. I came here today in the hope that my epitaph would not read that I died of red tape." The predictions were accurate. The scientists predicted there would be 40 million people worldwide infected with HIV by the turn of the century and that number has proved to be pretty much dead on, literally.

See this film. If necessary, discard your personal religious/philosophical/political prejudices and see it for what it is: an incredibly heartwrenching account of a modern epidemic. Strong performances all-around, Modine, Gere, McKellan, et al. This movie makes me weep every single time I see it. Not tear up, WEEP. Some have stated that the political flavor is a bit too leftist for their tastes, or that the movie makes Don Francis out to be a hero, and villanizes the government. I find this amusing since the only mention of the government is that Reagan didn't say the word AIDS for years, which is a complete truism. And Don Francis, though he strives to help as much as possible, certainly is not the classic "hero" as he does not save the day (an impossibility since this particular day has yet to be saved). He merely works, like many others, as hard as he can while fighting a losing battle.